Sidechain · settles to Ethereum
SKALE ticker SKL
Summary
SKALE Manager contracts on Ethereum register validators, hold SKL delegations, create chains and give each chain a committee of 16 nodes picked at random from the pool, rotating nodes between chains over time. Each committee runs distributed key generation, and the chain's BLS public key is stored in SKALE Manager. In each round every committee node proposes a block, a proposal needs data-availability signatures from two-thirds of the nodes, asynchronous binary Byzantine agreement picks a winner, and two-thirds of the nodes then sign it with a threshold signature, which makes it final. The skaled client began as a fork of Aleth (cpp-ethereum) and runs the EVM. SKALE Expand places a separate SKALE Manager and validator pool on Base; SKALE on Base is in public beta. 616182223242526
Design
- System
- SidechainSKALE is a network of many EVM chains (SKALE Chains) run by committees drawn from one shared validator pool. Each chain has its own consensus, but validator registration, SKL staking, chain creation and committee assignment live in SKALE Manager contracts on Ethereum, assets move over the IMA bridge, and Ethereum holds none of the chains' data and does not verify their execution. That is filed as a sidechain, not a standalone chain or a rollup. SKALE's own docs call every SKALE Chain its own Layer 1 and say SKALE is not a rollup or sidechain, so the label is marked contested.
- Settles to
- EthereumNot settlement in the rollup sense. SKALE Manager on Ethereum holds validator registration, SKL delegation, slashing, chain creation, committee assignment and each chain's BLS public key; IMA contracts on Ethereum hold bridged assets and accept messages signed by two-thirds of a chain's committee. Ethereum stores no SKALE transaction data or state roots. SKALE Expand uses Base in the same role for SKALE on Base, with its own validator pool; SKALE's staking page says that deployment has no staking at review time.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- Every node in a chain's committee proposes a block for each height; when several proposals win agreement, one is picked pseudo-randomly from the agreement protocol's common coin. Committee members are virtualized nodes on supernodes that validators run after staking at least 20 million SKL per supernode, and new validators must be added to a trusted list by the SKALE team, a step the docs call temporary. Peer supernodes monitor each node's uptime and latency for rewards. SKALE's docs disagree on whether validators on the Base deployment stake SKL.
- Fork choice
- No weight-based chain selection. A block needs a two-thirds threshold signature from the chain's committee and honest nodes sign one block per height, so the docs call the chain fork-free. If more than one-third of a committee fails, the chain stalls until nodes restart it through a recovery protocol coordinated on Ethereum. Nodes controlling more than two-thirds of a committee could sign a different history. The reviewed SKALE Manager code slashes automatically only for failed key generation; its administrator can also slash directly, and nothing automatically penalizes signing two blocks.
Qualifications
- Finality · Partial. Recorded as other. SKALE's own terms: instant finality via BLS threshold signatures. A block is final once two-thirds of the chain's 16-node committee sign the proposal chosen by asynchronous binary Byzantine agreement, and the docs say there are no reorgs. SKALE's supernode page says stake can be slashed for failing to take part in consensus, but in the reviewed SKALE Manager code the only automatic slashing is for failed key generation and any other slashing is the administrator's direct call, so no automatic penalty covers signing conflicting blocks.
- System class · Contested. SKALE's docs call every SKALE Chain its own Layer 1 and say SKALE is not a rollup or sidechain, its SKALE Expand page recalls that people called SKALE a Layer 1, then a Layer 2, then a Layer 1 again, and its validator FAQ speaks of chains in a second layer. This profile follows the sidechain reading because validator set, stake and chain creation live on Ethereum or Base, assets move over a bridge and no chain data is posted there.
- Staking scope · Partial. SKL delegation and staking apply to the original deployment on Ethereum. SKALE's staking page says SKALE Expand chains have no staking at this time, while the Base supernode guide has new validators added to a trusted list by the SKALE team and still mentions a minimum staking amount; the stake-backed security described here is not shown to cover SKALE on Base.
- Fee model · Applies. SKALE on Ethereum chains charge gas in sFUEL, a token with no monetary value that is recycled on chain, and can accept proof-of-work in place of gas; the chain owner pays a monthly subscription. SKALE Base charges compute from purchased CREDIT, and SKALE Expand can also run chains whose gas is a token with market value.
- Trusted hardware · Applies. Validators hold BLS key shares in Intel SGX enclaves, and the IMA agent processes bridge messages inside SGX. Safety of consensus keys and threshold decryption therefore also depends on SGX, whose published attacks the validator FAQ acknowledges.
- Chain owner control · Applies. Each chain's owner, by default a Safe multisig on Ethereum acting through a predeployed control contract, sets chain configuration, IMA limits and who may deploy contracts. The SKALE on Ethereum hub chains restrict contract deployment to allowlisted accounts, while SKALE Base allows deployment by anyone holding credits.
- Data availability · Not applicable. No transaction data, state roots or proofs of SKALE chains are posted to Ethereum. Within a chain, a proposal needs data-availability signatures from two-thirds of the committee, and ordinary nodes prune old blocks by size, so full history depends on archive nodes.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security Contested
- Gives up
- Open, per-chain decentralization. Each chain is run by a committee of 16 virtualized nodes drawn from about 98 supernodes (March 2026), validators need 20 million SKL per supernode, SGX-capable data-center servers and a place on a trusted list the SKALE team manages, and full nodes need the core team to allow their IP address. Ethereum does not check chain execution, and bridge exits trust two-thirds of a chain's committee. SKALE's staking page says SKALE on Base has no staking at present.The security reading refers to deterministic finality from two-thirds threshold signatures and SKL stake held on Ethereum. It is debatable: 11 colluding nodes of a 16-node committee could sign any block, the reviewed code slashes automatically only for failed key generation (any other slashing is an administrator's call), and key security leans on Intel SGX. SKALE's docs claim instant finality without sacrificing decentralization alongside unlimited scaling; reading that as all three priorities at once is contested.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 7172021A read-only sync node follows one chain and needs a Linux x86-64 machine with 8 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, 100 GB root storage and 256 GB (medium chain) to 2 TB (large chain) of attached storage, open ports, and the core team must be told its IP address first; it starts from a snapshot. Ordinary nodes prune old blocks, so full history needs an archive node. Validators need at least 8 physical cores, 32 GB RAM, a 2 TB block device, Intel SGX servers and their own Ethereum execution and consensus clients.
- Throughput claims
- Theoretical peak: 2,000,000,000 30Theoretical peak; not comparable across chains or with observed load.Transactions per day across all SKALE on Ethereum chains together (about 16 chains on about 800 nodes), as a stated capacityStated in a February 2026 forum post by SKALE Labs' chief executive with no method, window, transaction mix or hardware assumptions. Adds up many independent chains, each with its own committee, so it says nothing about one chain's rate and is not comparable with a single chain's figure. The same post says the network used less than 1% of this capacity and proposes shrinking the deployment, so the figure may not describe the network after consolidation.
- Unclassified: 50,000,000 30Unclassified; do not compare.Transactions per month across SKALE on Ethereum, as reported activityA recent month before 26 February 2026; the post does not name the month or the counting methodReported activity from a forum post, not a measured capacity; the month, the counting method and whether beacon or system transactions are included are not stated. Zero-fee chains make transaction counts cheap to generate, so counts say little about economic use. Not checked against an explorer or a node.
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | No hash-time-locked or other trust-minimized swap mechanism was documented for SKALE chains in the reviewed sources. Smart contracts could host one, but that is a building block and sets no value. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. SKALE lists native file storage among chain features, and each node's periodic snapshot hash covers stored files, but no reviewed source shows readers retrieving a file and checking it against a commitment the chain records. 810 |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Threshold-signed blocks: consensus produces what a light client checks, since each block carries a two-thirds BLS threshold signature that can be checked against one chain public key stored in SKALE Manager on Ethereum; nodes catching up and third-party archive nodes verify these signatures, and the IMA contract on Ethereum checks signed chain messages against that key. Limited: this serves bridge messages and node catch-up; no end-user light client was found, and a signature shows committee agreement, not correct execution. 62228 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel system settling to SKALE chains was found in the reviewed sources. The agent payment tools SKALE documents were not reviewed for channel features. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Smart contracts run on the EVM in the skaled client, which began as a fork of Aleth, so spend conditions are contract code. Contract deployment on the SKALE on Ethereum hub chains is limited to allowlisted accounts; SKALE Base allows deployment by anyone holding credits. 61123 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup or validium posting data or proofs to a SKALE chain was found. SKALE's own chains are not rollups: SKALE says they do not push state to a parent chain or checkpoint. Absence was not exhaustively verified. 1 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | ThinSushiSwap v2 and v3 (Europa), Ruby.Exchange, Aquas Trade | Sushi announced its v2 and v3 (concentrated-liquidity) pools on the SKALE Europa hub in June 2024, and DeFiLlama lists SushiSwap, Ruby.Exchange and Aquas Trade on Europa; the amounts its protocol data showed locked in these exchanges on Europa were small at review, hence thin. Operators and audits of the smaller venues were not reviewed. 293334 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Neither Circle's USDC contract list nor Tether's supported-protocols list includes SKALE. The USDC.e and USDT on SKALE Base are bridged from Base, and dollar tokens on SKALE on Ethereum chains arrive over IMA, so none is issuer-issued on SKALE. 23536 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on SKALE chains were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolIMA (Interchain Messaging Agent): Ethereum and chain-to-chain, SKALE on Base native bridge, Meson.Fi (third party) | IMA contracts are predeployed on every SKALE chain and paired with deposit boxes on Ethereum; they move ETH (received as the ETHC token), ERC-20, ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens and arbitrary messages. SKALE on Base has its own bridge to Base. SKALE's portal metadata lists Meson.Fi on Europa; other third-party bridges were not reviewed. Risk: Messages from a SKALE chain are accepted on Ethereum when two-thirds of its 16-node committee sign them, with no proof of execution, so a colluding supermajority could release bridged funds. IMA's own repository calls it alpha software, its contracts are upgradeable, and a pause role can halt a chain's bridge indefinitely. Exits need ETH prepaid into a community pool on Ethereum. 213141527282932 |
| Block explorers | ThinSKALE chain explorers (one per chain, on skalenodes.com) | SKALE's docs link one explorer for each chain on the skalenodes.com domain, including Europa, Nebula, Calypso and SKALE Base, without naming who runs them, and no second explorer was verified for any chain. Explorer data is indexed by the operator, not consensus, and old blocks pruned on ordinary nodes rely on archive data. 23 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinTrezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 (through MetaMask or Rabby) | See custody rows: Trezor's SKALE page lists a Skale network beside MetaMask and Rabby, but Trezor Suite's network code has no SKALE chain, so Trezor use on SKALE chains goes through third-party wallet apps; Suite holds SKL only as a token on Ethereum or Base. No readable Ledger page covers SKALE. 373839 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | UnknownSame as native: Unknown | Cannot: Find a SKALE chain among the networks in Ledger's crypto-asset service Cannot: Rely on a Ledger coin page for SKALE: the pages tried returned 404Ledger's asset service lists SKL as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, with copies on Arbitrum and Gnosis, but a registry entry alone does not show wallet support. SKALE's docs mention a Ledger for validators signing SKALE Manager transactions with the Ledger Ethereum app, not for users of SKALE chains. Signing on SKALE chains through a general wallet paired with a Ledger was not documented by either party and was not tested. 183940 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or RabbySame as native: Unknown | Can: Use a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 on SKALE chains through MetaMask or Rabby, confirming transactions on the device; Trezor's SKALE page lists Skale among the networks beside Base and Ethereum and names these apps Can: Hold SKL as a token on Ethereum or Base in Trezor Suite Cannot: Add a SKALE chain account in Trezor Suite: Suite's EVM network list in current code has no SKALE chainTrezor's SKALE page names Trezor Suite, MetaMask and Rabby without saying which app handles which network. Suite code has no SKALE chain, so under the shared custody rule the SKL token copy that Suite holds on Ethereum or Base does not count as custody on SKALE chains, and the device reaches those chains through the third-party apps. Older Trezor models were not listed. 3738 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for SKALE yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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SKALE DAO vote on SIP-6, ending SKL inflation by 2030, closed in favour
SIP-6 replaces the long SKL emission schedule, which would halve monthly minting from October 2026, with a four-year plan: validator and delegator emissions stepping down each year to zero after September 2030, and a matching amount minted for the SKALE Foundation to spend on grants, engineering and business development. Snapshot records the vote from 21 to 28 September 2026 as closed with about 310 million staked SKL voting for, none against and about 172 million abstaining; the total, abstentions included, was above the recorded quorum of about 348 million, while the votes in favour alone were below it.
- Proposal:approved by SKALE DAO Snapshot vote (closed 2026-09-28)
- Implementation:not verified
- Release:not verified
- Activation:planned for the epoch starting 1 October 2026; not verified
Sources: SKALE Network Forum — SIP-6: The 4-Year Terminal Tokenomics & Protocol Growth Framework (external site) · Snapshot — Snapshot hub: skale.eth proposals, states, scores and quorum (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
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SIP-4 SKL burning moved to production for SKALE on Base
SIP-4, posted on 7 January 2026 and approved in a SKALE DAO Snapshot vote that closed on 21 January, makes every SKALE Expand deployment send half of its revenue from subscriptions, gas and credit sales back to Ethereum each month, where it is burned as SKL (or used to buy SKL that is then burned); the other half goes to that deployment's node operators. A June 2026 forum post said the mechanism had left beta and was live for SKALE on Base, with the first burns imminent. The economics of the original Ethereum deployment are unchanged.
- Proposal:approved by SKALE DAO Snapshot vote (closed 2026-01-21)
- Implementation:shipped according to the 2026-06-01 forum post
- Release:moved out of beta into production for SKALE on Base
- Activation:live for SKALE on Base per the post; actual burns not verified
Sources: SKALE Network Forum — SKL Burning Is Live: SIP-4 Moves From Vote to Production (external site) · SKALE Network Forum — [SIP-4]: SKL Burning & SKALE Expand Economics (external site) · Snapshot — Snapshot hub: skale.eth proposals, states, scores and quorum (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
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SKALE DAO approved SIP-5, a minimum stake that rises with each extra supernode
SIP-5, posted by the SKALE Foundation with SKALE Labs and Blockdaemon, replaces the flat 20 million SKL minimum stake per supernode with a progressive one: 20 million for a validator's first supernode, 40 million for the second and 60 million for the third, rising further after that. The post expected the network to shrink from 98 supernodes to about 45 with the same total stake. Snapshot records the vote from 16 to 23 March 2026 as closed with every vote in favour and above its recorded quorum.
- Proposal:approved by SKALE DAO Snapshot vote (closed 2026-03-23)
- Implementation:not verified in SKALE Manager
- Release:not verified
- Activation:not verified
Sources: SKALE Network Forum — SIP-5: Progressive MSR for Network Efficiency (external site) · Snapshot — Snapshot hub: skale.eth proposals, states, scores and quorum (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
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SKALE Labs' chief executive proposed shrinking the Ethereum deployment and focusing on SKALE on Base
In a forum post, SKALE Labs' chief executive described SKALE on Base, the first SKALE Expand deployment, as moving beyond a trial, said SKL could now move between Ethereum, Base and SKALE on Base, and put the SKALE on Ethereum network at about 800 nodes and 16 chains. He proposed contracting that network: a rising minimum stake per extra supernode and consolidating apps onto about five main chains while retiring underused ones.
- Proposal:strategy post; the minimum-stake part was proposed separately as SIP-5
- Implementation:not verified
- Release:no software release involved
- Activation:not verified; which chains were retired was not checked
Sources: SKALE Network Forum — Expand. Contract. Grow: The Next Evolution of the SKALE Network (external site) · SKALE Network Forum — SIP-5: Progressive MSR for Network Efficiency (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for SKALE through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- How many validator organizations run the roughly 98 supernodes (March 2026) and how SKL stake is spread among them were not measured; the node and chain counts come from SKALE forum posts, not a chain read.
- Who holds upgrade, pause and admin rights over the SKALE Manager and IMA contracts on Ethereum and Base, and whether any delay applies, was not verified; the reviewed IMA code has a role that can pause a chain's bridge indefinitely.
- Whether the trusted validator list is still switched on in the deployed SKALE Manager was not read on chain; the docs call the step temporary.
- The slashing finding comes from the develop branch of SKALE Manager; the deployed version was not compared, who holds the administrator role that can slash directly was not verified, and penalties for missed service levels (forfeited rewards) were not reviewed in code.
- Whether SKALE on Base validators stake SKL was not settled: SKALE's staking page says SKALE Expand chains have no staking at this time, while the Base supernode guide asks for staked SKL at the minimum staking amount.
- SIP-5 (a progressive minimum stake per supernode) passed a Snapshot vote in March 2026; whether SKALE Manager enforces it now was not verified.
- The SIP-6 vote to end SKL inflation by 2030 closed on 28 September 2026; whether the new schedule takes effect on 1 October 2026 was not verified.
- SKALE on Base's launch date, validator operators, node count and committee size were not verified; SIP-6 says permissioned SKALE Expand chains use fewer validator nodes per chain.
- Which SKALE on Ethereum chains remain active after the consolidation onto about five chains proposed in February 2026 was not verified.
- No end-user light client was found; whether a public tool lets users check block signatures against the key in SKALE Manager was not reviewed.
- How many validators run SGX locally or over the network, and how SGX-related vulnerabilities are handled in practice, was not reviewed.
- The SKALE blog could not be read (an automated-access checkpoint answered), so announcements published only there were not reviewed.
- Atomic swaps, reversible transfers or recovery, signed partial offers, channels, algorithmic stablecoins and rollups settling to SKALE chains were not researched in depth; absence was not verified.
- Ledger support for SKL or for SKALE chains could not be confirmed from a readable Ledger page, and the Trezor page does not say which app handles the SKALE network.
- The decimals and supply management of sFUEL were not verified, and CREDIT pricing on SKALE Base was not reviewed.
- Liquidity depth, operators and audits of the exchanges on Europa were not reviewed.
- FAIR, a separate Layer 1 with its own token announced by SKALE contributors in 2025, is outside this profile; its status was not reviewed.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.
- SKALE Expand (external site)
- SKALE on Base (network details, tokens, deployed contracts) (external site)
- The SKL Token (external site)
- Staking SKL (external site)
- SKALE Chain introduction (external site)
- Consensus (SKALE Mainnet Beta) (external site)
- Block Rotation (external site)
- SKALE Chain Snapshots (external site)
- Gas Fees (external site)
- Appchain (external site)
- EVM Differences (external site)
- SKALE Chain Ownership (external site)
- Bridge Overview (IMA) (external site)
- Bridge ETH (external site)
- Message Proxy (external site)
- Supernode Overview (external site)
- Validator FAQ (external site)
- Run a Supernode (external site)
- Run a Supernode on Base (external site)
- Compliance Requirements (external site)
- Run Sync Node (external site)
- Distributed Key Generation with BLS (external site)
- SKALED: SKALE C++ Client (README) (external site)
- SKALE Manager ConstantsHolder.sol (develop branch): 16 nodes per chain, MSR, rotation delay (external site)
- SKALE Manager Punisher.sol (develop branch): slash guarded by allow("SkaleDKG") (external site)
- SKALE Manager Permissions.sol (develop branch): allow() admits the named contract or the default admin (external site)
- SKALE IMA (Interchain Messaging Agent) Contracts README (external site)
- IMA MessageProxyForMainnet.sol (develop branch): BLS verification and pause role (external site)
- SKALE Portal mainnet chain and app metadata (chains.json) (external site)
- Expand. Contract. Grow: The Next Evolution of the SKALE Network (26 Feb 2026) (external site)
- SIP-5: Progressive MSR for Network Efficiency (14 Mar 2026) (external site)
- Analyzing SKALE Chains For An Ethereum User (16 Sep 2021) (external site)
- Sushi is Live on SKALE (20 Jun 2024) (external site)
- DeFiLlama protocols API (Europa entries: SushiSwap, Ruby.Exchange, Aquas Trade, Meson) (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Supported Protocols and Integration Guidelines (external site)
- SKALE wallet (external site)
- trezor-suite: Ethereum-style network configuration (develop branch) (external site)
- Ledger crypto-asset service, network list (external site)
- Ledger crypto-asset service, token search for SKL (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding